The Age Meter.
As we approach the 375th birthday of our beloved
city, I am left with a lot of doubt. I know for sure that my city is time
immemorial having been a part of the rich history of the Cholas and the
Pallavas and all the other war lords and chieftains who fought to lord over it.
I know that it was always a great trading centre from where the brave sea
farers went far and wide both for trade and for conquest. I know that it is
home to some very ancient structures, bronzes and literature which could well
go into the Before Christ Era. So when we are the proud owners of such a rich
history, why do we want to call ourselves a young city which hasn’t even
touched the magical 500 years? As a nation we are only over sixty years of age
calculating from the time we got our freedom from the British. This is
something that cannot be changed for it was only in 1950 that we became a
Sovereign Democratic Republic. But then coming back to our beloved City, can’t
we trace its origin to when modern habitation began? By this I mean, the time
when the cave man ceased to exist. I am sure our archeologists given the right
motivation can find the age of our city, the age when its people started living
in communities and followed a way of life on the lines of a developed society.
Who knows what surprises awaits us? What if we precede the Mohenjo-Daro civilization?
Ever since I visited Lothal in Gujarat, it has bothered me that we have not
gone deep enough into our past to fix an age to our beloved city.
Now coming to Madras’s 375th Birthday, the date
chosen is 22nd August 1639; the day when Andrew Cogan and Francis
Day with the help of Dubash Beri Thimappa signed a contract for a lease for a
strip of land with the Raja of Chandragiri. On this strip rose the first fortified
community of the British in the Coromandel Coast which they named after their
patron saint as Fort St. George. It could very well be that it was the British
who gave the settlement the name of Madras. Does giving a name alone qualify
for fixing its age? I am sure that the said strip of land which was handed over
to the British must have had a name earlier. In fact history says that that
land was called Chennapatna after the rulers of the time. It saddens me to
think that we feel it fine to ignore the past history of the fishing villages
that constituted the Madras of yore and instead willingly accepted the date
when we began the process of submission to a foreign power as the starting
point of our city. Foreign powers have had a free ride in our land prior to the
British but with over 300 years of submission, we cannot think in any other way
than that of the Britannica. If proof is what matters, then there is abundant
proof of settlements by the Western Powers in Mylapore, a place just less than
5kms south from the present Fort St. George. The Portuguese came there in the
early 16th Century and built the edifice which they called as Nossa
Senhora da Luz. The said edifice
also happens to be one of the oldest European Monuments in India. The façade of
the building proudly displays the year 1516 and the serene atmosphere and the
tomb stones it holds sure take you to an intriguing past. I make sure that as
much as possible I take the quaint street which leads to this monument and I am
being totally honest when I say that I am left with goose bumps each time I
pass that way. For the truth is that, I am an hundred percent History Buff. The way in which the edifice got to be built
is indeed so dramatic that I never miss out on an opportunity to retell the
same.
And so here goes the
(or is it my) story: The year could be 1513 or may be 1514 and
the place, the shores of the settlement of Mylapore which is now as we all know
an integral part of the mega polis that is Chennai and the people in question a
group of Portuguese soldiers in a sailing vessel. Caught in bad weather and
totally lost with only a sliver of hope, the sailors were resigned to death. The
only thing they could ask for was divine intervention. Their prayers were
answered for a divine light guided them
and brought them to the shore and led them through dense groves to an alcove
where they felt safe. Thus in honour of the Divine Mother who guided them, they
built a church in Mylapore, which is none other than the Church of Our Lady
of Light commonly called as LUZ CHURCH, for luz in Portuguese means light.
Mylapore was a flourishing harbor of that period and was in
all account superior to the useless land that was given to the British. Had the
Portuguese been our rulers, maybe we would have called our Mega polis as
Mylapore and we would have then been celebrating our 500th birthday.
Also had the Portuguese as the first Western Powers not come to
Mylapore/Madras/Chennai, the course of our history would have been entirely
different. Having preceded the British by over a 120 years, I am sure that it
is the story of our wealth as related by the Portuguese soldiers that caught
the fancy of the British. I know fully well that whatever dissection done on
this topic cannot bring about any change in the course of history.
I cannot but end this note without wondering as to how long it
will take before we start the birthday celebrations of our beloved Chennai
which as of today is only 18 years and 25 days old for it was christened thus
on the 17th of July 1996.
Every year I enjoy Madras Day and make sure that I
participate as much as I can. This year too I have earmarked certain events for
which I will definitely go. This is a view I have been holding on to for a very
long time and just thought this was the best time to air it.
